Puppy Love
by enemytosleep
Summary: The kids met their new family member in an unexpected way. Written for Evil Little Dog's birthday, so not nearly as fluffy as you might think.


"Ed, mom's gonna be mad when she reads that letter."

"No she won't."

"Yes she will!"

"No she _won't_!" Ed shoved his hands into his pockets and kicked an innocent pebble viciously. "I got the answer right - _more_ right than the teacher."

"But that's why you got in trouble," Winry said sagely. "You know Ms. Finchley doesn't like it when you correct her in class."

Ed scrunched his face and growled, "Which form of energy is produced when a guitar string vibrates? The answer is kinetic, _not_ sound!"

Al replied, "Sound is energy, Ed," his round eyes seeking approval.

"Well yeah, but it's a _form_ of kinetic energy. If she wanted such a specific answer-"

"You are so dumb, Ed!" Winry spat.

"Am not!"

"You guys shouldn't argue-"

"Leave it, Al!" Ed hollered, stamping his foot. A little cloud of dust billowed out around his foot. "If you weren't a girl, Winry, I'd-"

"You'd what?" she asked hotly. "If _you_ weren't such a _boy_, I'd-"

"Ed, Winry, what's that?" Al cut in. He was pointing toward a group of boys gathered on the side of the road at the edge of the Davies' sheep fence.

"I dunno, Al," Ed muttered, wandering over to them. Winry and Al followed closely behind.

When they approached the outer edge of the circle, the boys looked up, surprised, and then started giggling and whispering to each other. A large wooden hoop rested up against the fence post, and was currently being ignored in favor of whatever was happening at the circle's center.

"What's going?" Ed demanded of them.

"Nothing," one of the boys replied, squaring off in front of Ed. Ed recognized the group from school. They were a little older than Ed and Winry - and a little bigger - but that didn't scare Ed at all. Ed looked behind the boy and saw that two of the other boys were kneeling around something at the fence.

"What are you looking at?" Ed barked. He had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"I told you, pipsqueak. _Nothing_."

Before Ed could set the idiot straight over who was a pipsqueak and who wasn't, Winry shoved past Ed and broke right into the inner circle. "You _jerks_!" she yelled. "It's just a baby puppy!"

Now that the boys had moved some, Ed could see it. A small black puppy with floppy ears was stuck in the woven wire of the fence. There was a hole in the wire where the puppy was stuck: either the post had shifted, or a sheep had bust through, Ed couldn't tell which. He _could _see that one of the puppy's front legs was badly hurt, though, all caught up in the broken wire, the exposed flesh an ugly shade of black. It had probably been stuck there for days. Then Ed saw the flat stick in one of the boy's hands, the hoop's accompaniment. They were poking the puppy with it and laughing, the damn bastards.

"Mind your own damn business," one of the boys said, shoving Winry back as she got down and hovered right in his face.

"Hey! Don't you touch her!" Ed shouted, pushing back his shirt sleeves and pulling back his fist to punch. Al was right behind him.

Winry staggered back half a step, then narrowed her eyes and lunged at the boy. In the scuffle, Ed lost count of who hit who, but there were a lot of punches thrown, and a lot of kicks delivered to exposed shins. What Ed did remember was how it ended: Winry had gotten hold of the hoopstick and was jabbing the ringleader in the kidneys with it, hard.

"You should be ashamed!" she yelled. "How long have you known it was hurt like this?"

"Not long - Oow! We'll leave it alone!"

Winry stopped jabbing him then, and strode over to the fence. She grabbed their hoop, hooked the stick into it, then chucked it down the road. As it rolled away at top speed, she drew back the stick and yelled, "If I ever catch you doing anything like that again, you'll need my granny to fix you afterwards."

As she threw the stick down the road after the hoop, Ed saw it fit to add, "And I'll make sure Granny won't touch you to fix you, either!"

The boys exchanged worried looks, then took off running after their hoop. Ed looked after them, completely unable to keep the smug grin off his face.

"You shouldn't wish bad things for other people, Ed."

"I know, Al, but sometimes people deserve it."

"Maybe," Al said quietly.

"Come on guys," Winry said, tugging on Ed's elbow, "we've got to help this puppy." Ed's face fell, but he obediently turned and followed her back to the fence.

She knelt down next to the little dog, cautiously petting its head. Then she looked back up at Ed and Al. "Al, go get Granny while me and Ed get her free from the fence."

Al nodded and took off running. Ed dropped down next to Winry, not taking his eyes from the tangle of flesh and broken wire. Winry began taking off her cardigan. "I'll need you to hold her still while I pull the wire back," she instructed. Ed nodded his head mutely. She wrapped the puppy's shoulders with the sweater, looping a thick wad of fabric beneath the puppy's chin, then directed Ed's hands. "Try and keep the sweater between us and the puppy. This probably hurts a lot, and I won't blame her for nipping at us." Again, Ed simply nodded and watched with wide eyes as Winry dove right in and began pulling the wire back from the dog's leg, which was gross and smelled bad - and Ed would never complain about any of that to anyone.

Ed decided Winry wasn't half bad for a girl, even though she liked dogs.


End file.
